In most institutional and commercial premises partition walls are constructed utilizing metal studs with wallboard attached to the metal stud. The use of the metal stud for the partition walls satisfies requirements for fire rating of the partition walls. In recent years, the requirement for confidentiality, particularly in institutional settings such as hospitals, has required that the partition walls be constructed to attenuate sounds from being transmitted through the partition wall.
In order to achieve the required sound attenuation, it has been necessary in the past to utilize multiple layers of wallboard on the surface of the partition wall. In some cases, particularly when utilizing heavier gauge metal studs up to five layers of wallboard may be required with two layers on one side of the partition wall and three layers on the other side.
Another prior solution to the reduction of sound transmission through the partition wall utilized resilient channels on one or both of the partition wall surfaces. These resilient channels space the wallboard away from the metal studs and reduce the area through which sound can be transmitted through the wall. While the use of resilient channel reduces the layers of wallboard required in the partition wall they also have the drawback of making it more difficult to attach structures to the surface of the partition wall thus reducing the ability of the partition wall to support a load.
Another solution to the reduction of sound transmission has been the provision of special structures in the web of the stud to reduce the ability of sound to travel in a straight line across the web the stud. However, such structures also reduce the load carrying capacity of the metal stud and could result in a flimsy partition wall.
Another problem in institutional settings such as hospitals, is that the walls take a fair amount of abuse, being struck by equipment such as stretchers, carts, etc. Recently, wall board manufacturers have developed abuse resistant products which have stronger paper surfaces and higher density cores than standard wall board. For extreme conditions, the abuse resistant board may also have fiberglass mesh imbedded in the core. However, the use of the denser and harder abuse resistant wallboard can cause problems with screw penetration through the wall board and underlying stud thus possibly affecting screw performance with lighter gauge metal studs which are employed to achieve the reduction of sound transmission.
There thus remains a need for a stud for use in a wall having at least one layer of abuse resistant wall board capable of maintaining the load carrying capacity and screw performance while having improved properties in reducing sound transmission across the metal stud.